Democratic mayors lead pension-reform effort

SACRAMENTO  Some writers have been trying to portray the ongoing California effort to reform the state’s pension system as a right-wing Republican effort, but Democrats dominate the list of supporters of a statewide pension initiative announced today. It is targeted for the November 2014 ballot.

Most pension reform efforts deal with new hires only, and therefore will take years before the changes yield any cost savings. The measure leaves reform in the hands of local governments. All five of the politicians who submitted the measure to the state attorney general are mayors of cities that have struggled with ballooning pension costs.

The four Democrats are Chuck Reed of San Jose, Pat Morris of San Bernardino, Miguel Pulido of Santa Ana and Bill Kampe of Pacific Grove. Anaheim’s Republican Mayor Tom Tait joins the list. Three of those cities have been Ground Zero in the pension-reform battle.

Reed led a citywide initiative last November that reduces pensions for new hires but also requires current employees to contribute more money to their plan. It passed with 70 percent of the vote, but unions have been challenging the reforms. San Jose officials argue that their city’s charter specifically allows them to tackle benefits for current workers.

The key portion of the initiative: It would amend the state Constitution “to give government agencies clear authority to negotiate changes to existing employees’ pension or retiree health-care benefits on a strictly going-forward basis,” according to a statement filed by initiative supporters. They note that federal law and laws in 18 states allow such changes – but that a series of California court cases have tied the hands of municipalities.

The measure also prevents state officials and pension funds from interfering with these decisions, an attempt to halt, for instance, efforts by an appointed state board to keep San Diego’s pension-reform initiative from getting to the ballot. The Public Employment Relations Board ruled that Mayor Jerry Sanders should have negotiated with the unions before taking Proposition B directly to the voters.

The reform act also requires employers to wait until labor contracts expire before negotiating benefit changes and requires underfunded pension plans to publish a public report detailing how the agency can get back to full funding in 15 years.

“In Pacific Grove, pension costs have crowded out library hours, overdue street and infrastructure maintenance and other important services,” said Mayor Bill Kampe, in a statement. Other mayors echoed the same points: without reform, public services will continue to suffer. Many Democrats view pension reform as something necessary to stop the erosion of public services.

And the initiative states that a “voter sponsored measure is necessary because attempts to reform the system through legislation and other initiatives have been inadequate.” That’s clear. Although a watered-down version of the governor’s pension-reform measure was passed last year (pertaining mainly to new state hires), there was no action in the last session – even as changed accounting formulas highlighted a growing debt problem.

So now the signature-gathering and the political battle continues. With progressive Democrats taking the lead, it will be interesting to see how reform foes react.